Special Breed of Pilots Make Bizav Work in Europe and Beyond

In a mature and always-challenging market like Europe, it falls to professionals like Sabine von der Linden to ensure that business aviation remains viable and rewarding for its clients. Now in her 10th year as a corporate pilot, she is an experienced captain and instructor on Bombardier’s Global 6500 and 7500 jets and group standards officer with the Luxaviation aircraft management and charter group.

“So far this year, it is too early to say whether the industry should be optimistic or pessimistic,” she told AIN two weeks after the Iran war broke out and triggered a steep increase in fuel prices and airspace disruption. “There is more of a sense of caution that leaves us wondering what is happening and how we will feel the impact.”

In Europe’s largely stagnant economies, consumer confidence seems to be languishing, and political uncertainty around elections pending in several countries is not helping. But the uncertainty can also present opportunities that are reflected in rising demand for charter flights from what could be an expanding customer base.

According to von der Linden, operators like Luxaviation are increasingly serving a rising younger generation of customers, and the demands they make are shifting. “In the past, a typical business traveler might start with a Citation and move up [to larger aircraft], but now younger clients start with something more like a Challenger 650,” she commented. “The question is how steady and predictable this demand will be. These customers could be ‘in-today-and-out tomorrow,’ whereas in the past it was easier to monitor what the market would do.”

Some might say the way European business aviation is governed can be overly burdensome. For von der Linden—a vocal safety advocate—the continent has a strong regulatory base that delivers credible asset protection.

Aircraft owners have options in terms of where they register their jets, with an array of tradeoffs in terms of the extent to which they can earn revenue from charter availability to offset costs, but also for tax deduction and depreciation considerations. Luxaviation holds 11 different air operator certificates to meet the varying needs of its global fleet, and seven of these are in Europe.

Von der Linden and her fellow pilots routinely have to navigate operational disadvantages faced by business aircraft crews, including increasingly tight airport slot restrictions. For example, Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands now just has two slots available each day, so Luxaviation typically takes clients to Rotterdam instead. In the current Middle East crisis, non-scheduled charters have to accept that they are a lower priority than airlines for whatever airspace and airport access is possible.

“We have to explain the limits to passengers, such as the fact that there are fewer 24-hour airports without night curfews,” von der Linden explained. “Clients provide us with their business schedule, and we make the most of their time in relationships built on trust.”

Not all pilots would be well-suited to Europe’s distinct environment for business aviation. “Aircraft knowledge is only part of the job; collecting flight hours isn’t everything,” von der Linden commented.

A core part of the job is absorbing the operational changes clients in the back of the aircraft make and squaring these as far as safety permits. “You have to make multiple small risk assessments, and you only get what this takes through experience,” explained von der Linden, who holds licenses from EASA, the UK, the FAA, and the UAE.

In her experience, these factors are part of the balance that has to be struck when recruiting additional pilots. “There are brilliant young people with a very technical mindset, and then older pilots with more experience, but who may not have the right commercial mindset [for business aviation] and could be better off flying for the airlines,” she said.